The 2018 FIFA World Cup Finals are set, with France and Croatia ready to face off July 15 for the ultimate title in soccer. While most sports fans just see it as France versus Croatia, the footwear industry also sees the championship game on Sunday through another lens: Nike versus Nike. And for the giant athletic brand, it’s a win-win situation.
With two of their sponsored countries competing in the World Cup Finals, Nike’s promotion is well under way across all of their social media platforms.
The brand’s coverage of France’s Kylian Mpabbe actually started well before his team punched their ticket to the Finals, as they promoted the 19-year old star, who became the country’s youngest World Cup goal scorer ever this year, in his very own feature with an accompanying short film for the Nike Football “Believe” campaign.
After France earned their trip to the Finals, Nike reinforced the young Mpabbe’s readiness to compete with another Instagram post.
Watch on FN
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlEEIthlKf4/?hl=en&taken-by=nikefootball
As for Croatia, Nike featured their captain and Real Madrid star Luka Modric in an Instagram post after their quarter-finals victory against Russia. The simple caption to the post almost seemed to predict the country’s performance against England in the semi-finals: “Relentless.”
After Croatia’s victory yesterday, it was Mario Mandzukic who took center stage on the @nikefootball Instagram account.
Soccer fans will be glued to their TVs on Sunday when the final game gets underway at 11:00 a.m. EDT. And you can bet that Nike will have plenty more to say about whichever of their teams win it all.
